The Silence of Shadows
by sarah lambert-ratliff
Summary: Dorothy Ace McShane, three years on from leaving the Professor has found herself a life as a solider fighting the daleks, but she is wearly of being a solder. Tired of the constant battles, and losing everyone she has ever cared about meets a Doctor who has lost the will to live after using Donna Noble.
1. Chapter 1

The Silence of Shadows

Chapter One

Dorothy Ace McShane, once she had been a normal girl. Going to school, hanging out with her friends, blowing up the art room. Nothing unusual there, well not that much, not until she brewed up a time storm in her chemistry class and ended up alone and afraid on a planet full of ice and strange creatures she'd never seen before. Barely 16 years old and fighting to survive without anyone to help her. She'd fought, kissed, or fucked her way through her existence, and into a little money, a tiny one roomed hovel to live in and a lousy job as a waitress.

Then he'd come along, that Professor guy and he'd shown her a better way, given her a change to fight back at everything that had hurt her, get over her fears. Ice World had made the child into a woman, but the Doctor had given that woman a fire a reason to live. Under his tutorage she had fought daleks, cybermen, ghosts, alien knights, morgana and even a giant candy man.

Then something had changed inside of her on the planet of the cheetahs, the Doctor had used her, abused her and not for the first time either. She was a tool, a pawn in his game of chess, nothing more. Eventually he had waited for her to change half way into being a cat to take them home, she had nearly lost herself forever. The Doctor had pulled her away from the fight to save her soul, but it hadn't helped.

There was such an anger in her after they had left Earth, boiling under her skin all the time. She'd go from fine to unstable and trying to kill someone in mere seconds. Sometimes she'd catch a glimpse of the Professors worried face staring back at her. All a mix of horror, sorrow and disappointment. In the end it was that which drove them apart, well that and the fact she couldn't meet his eyes anymore.

And the even more potent fact that the douchbag had let her fall in love knowing that Jan would very soon be taken from her and break her heart. That had tipped her over the edge once and for all. She'd grabbed her stuff from the Tardis and walked away, the one thing she had never thought she'd be able to. Found a new life for herself elsewhere. Found something that matched her current traits, a war to fight in. A war against the daleks and she was a soldier now fighting for what she believed in. Killing those who had hurt her so many times, saving people, doing good or so she hoped anyway.

Dorothy had her own special weapons department, her own tech she ahd developed herself. Various new strains of nitro including one with a virus inbuilt which destroyed karled DNA on contact. A very swift and most painful death from what of it she'd seen in action. There were special bullets she'd worked on as well, nitro tipped rounds. Could blow a dalek into a thousand pieces, shame they were so expensive to make and they had so few of them. The war would have been won long ago if they were used permanently.

At first she'd been so eager, so raw and angry, in so much emotional turmoil that she had loved every second of battle. Kept a score every night of how many daleks she had killed, how many lives she had saved. It had helped, a little at least.

Three years on the soldier was weary, the notes in her diary every night just brought her pain at the thought of how many souls they had lost that day in the constant battle that seemed to have no end. The angry little child had grown up and somewhere along the way her thoughts of hate towards the man who'd allowed her lover to die had turned to apathy, then disappointment, and then just a pang of loneliness for her best friend. She really did miss her messed up Professor, he'd been the only real friend she'd ever had in her fucked up life. Sometimes she long to see him just one more time before she died.

Ace laughed dryly looking at the words she had written on the blank page of her diary. Barely 22 by more then a handful of days and there she was thinking about the end of her days already. She sighed, a by product of hr job she guessed. They were all living on borrowed time, never knowing what would be their last breath. She never had expected to be the soldier who had seen too much when she left Perivale, yet here she was, a commander of a small army who were getting ready to attack in the morning again.

To kill or be killed, that was the only truth in life anymore. You didn't live, you didn't survive not when everything you loved had been taken from you. Your friends, your family, your lovers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children were all buried beneath your feet. What did you have left when everything you cared for was gone? How do you drag yourself up every morning knowing that you had no one left to care for you or about you? No one to even notice if you were gone, you were just another number on someone clipboard to be crossed off and lost in the flood.

Ace fingered the pendant around her throat, the image of Jan there as always. Never part from her, always missing him. Always longing for the only man she had ever loved in her miserable existence. Hoping at least in death they might find each other again. The only small solace she took in her painful life was that she might get to see him again when it was all over.

Packing her trusty old backpack full of nitro and ammo ready for the oncoming storm of the next dawn. She looked across at her old Ace jacket she'd loved so much, still covered with all her old pins and badges from her travels with the Doctor. On a whim she pulled it on over her body armour. If she was going to blink out tonight she might as well do it in style, her own personal style. Tight black shirt and trousers, strong boots, body armour, hair scraped back into a pony tail, and a jacket that sparkled with colours as she moved. Yeah she would stand out a mile and be everyone's target wearing this.

Dorothy shrugged to herself, chances were no one was coming out alive that day, so what the fuck. Adding her collection of weapons to her belt and a pump action shotgun with nitro tipped bullets to her back, she walked out to face her destiny and meet her maker.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Silence of Shadows**

**Chapter 2**

The Tardis was drifting around in space, no destination in mind, no co ordinates had been programmed in. They hadn't in a long time now. The Doctor lent on the console, tears pouring down his face. He had lost everything that had ever mattered to him, his home, his people, his family, Jenny his almost daughter, the girl he loved so very much TWICE and now his best friend as well. He had nothing else to give, no more strength left to fight anymore. He wanted to die, to give it all up. Let someone else protect the worlds from now on, surely he had done enough by now? 900 years or so patrolling the universes making sure nothing went wrong, trying to make sure that everyone lived and life was great. Surely it was someone else's turn.

He had travelled briefly since leaving Donna back home with her family, a pale shadow of her former self. Her mind erased of everything they had ever done together, back to the idiot, selfish little brat she had been when she first met him. Always missing out on everything in life, just going through the motions of existence never knowing the pleasures it could bring to those who looked for them. He'd watched her a few times, Wilf had tried to get him to fix her. But he didn't know how, didn't see a way to do it without her dying. So she ran around again best temp in Chiswick, not remembering that the stars sang her name forever for what she had done. Not remembering that her best friend was out there, just feeling the ache in her heart for the rest of her life.

Saving people, fighting evil, it just wasn't the same anymore. He was broken inside, so badly damaged he didn't think it would ever stop hurting. The pain felt like it was eating him up from the inside, tearing what was left of his heart into tiny little pieces of acid dipped flesh. The Doctor slunk onto the floor and held his head in his hands and the waves of grief flowed over him. The tears he had been holding back for so long, trying to keep himself strong. There was no keeping them back anymore. He didn't want to either, what was the point of it? There was no one here to see him, no one left to care anymore.

The Doctor turned on the scanner and tuned into the Ood song for Donna Noble, the sad song of regret for her loss, and her sacrifice. Sadness, which was all he had left now. He rarely slept, but he tried to close his eyes wishing for the eternal rest he deserved so richly. The slumber that healed all wounds, all troubles, to see his loved ones once again. Drifting off into blackness listening to the song, he dreamt of Donna and his friends. And for a few hours he was happier then he had been in months, years, however long it had been, he'd lost track of all time now.

The Tardis bubbled and groaned away to herself, she didn't know how to fix her thief this time. Normally she would take him to danger, romance, excitement, hell even the Eye of Orion whatever he needed to carry on. Nothing she could find could tempt him out of this gloom and darkness he had sunk into. She could feel his pain screaming through their link together. She wanted so much to help him, to end his suffering. If she didn't then they would both die here together, slowly rotting away floating dead in space for the rest of infinity.

The Tardis wouldn't, couldn't allow that, they were the last of the guardians left now. There must always be a Lord of Time to control the barriers and protect the Universes. The Tardis couldn't take him to Rose on her own, nor could she fix The Doctor/Donna. But with a little help anything was possible.

She searched through space and time to find a part of herself long forgotten, long laid to rest. Turning part of her console room itself back in time, to where a young blonde girl had offered to do anything to save the life of the man she loved. Even look into the vortex itself. …

Rose, Rose….

But that girl wasn't Rose anymore, she looked towards the Tardis console listening to the sound. She knew that she had to open that door and save her Doctor from the Daleks like he had saved her, but the sound distracted her. She could see time and space all at once, it was burning her out. There wasn't much time left and she knew she had to save him before she lost the powers again. Shaking her head, she took a step towards the door again.

Rose, Rose… Please help me. He needs you, he is dying. Rose….

She stopped, "Who are you? Where are you?"

Rose, come to me…..

The room around the girl changed, and aged. She looked around, she hadn't moved in space, just time. "Hello?" she asked.

The Tardis spoke in her head, "Rose, you have the power of the universe, the untamed vortex and I need your help to save the Doctor." She showed Rose images of what had happened and what was going to happen in his personal time stream.

A tear fell on the Wolf's cheek, then another. "We can't let him die, the Universe needs it's Doctor. He's lost so much, so very much." Her eyes glowed even more yellow as she looked towards his broken form on the floor.

She walked over to him, and went to touch him on the arm, but hesitated a moment. "He can't hear or see you right now, he won't wake from this sleep for sometime. I made him rest, hoping it would help him." The Tardis whispered.

The Wolf touched his arm breathing in the scent of her lover, letting the feelings he was being consumed by roll over her. She saw what had happened, how she, Rose had gained her own Doctor, and was living reasonably happily with him. She was with child, something to give him hope and hold on to. To be a father again would be his greatest task. She looked into Donna's future, bleak and depressing, temping, single, lonely. Aching for the man she had lost but couldn't remember. The choice was easy, she knew what to do.

"We will save him, I promise!" she said aloud, kissing her lover on the cheek. "I will set things right for you."

"Just remember," The Tardis warned, "You must always go back to the point and save him, destroy the Daleks and allow him to take your strength and regenerate or none of this will happen. Your body will break down under the power of the vortex, you must travel swiftly and efficiently!"

The Wolf nodded her understanding, and vanished from the control room to complete her task. The images from the Doctors Past, Present and Future in her head.

The Tardis settled back down to watch over her thief, her lonely angel until he awoke.

The Bad Wolf

Authors Note

For those of you who wanted to see this redone in a story, it is now being re-edited under The Silence of Shadows and made into a full length story.

Thank You

Sarah.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Silence of Shadows**

**Chapter 3**

Donna Noble, somewhere in the universe that actually meant something, but not here, not in the temping pool. Here Donna was just a nameless, faceless being trying to fight her way into a good job and good money. Maybe one day something other then a temping contract, and maybe even a husband. She'd nearly married once, she wasn't quite sure what had happened. If he had stood her up or if she had him, the day was very fuzzy in her mind. She had images that didn't make sense, like a flash of a blue box, and water a lot of water. Another man came to mind as well, a skinny man in a suit.

Donna's head hurt trying to sort the jumble of fractured memories and half truths in her mind. She knew she was missing something really important, but for the life of her couldn't remember what it was. She lent on her desk rubbing her tired eyes, the phones had been quiet for hours and she was just typing up a few loose ends. It was a good job, working at an important law firm, the money was good as well and the hours. It was everything she had wanted, she was even in line for a promotion into a permanent slot.

So why was Donna so very unhappy, why when ever she got ready for work did she feel like crying. Not even just then, she almost always felt like crying. The only place she felt at peace was sitting with her Granddad watching the stars. She never knew what he was looking for, but every night he sat there staring up at the stars for something. Her mother had gotten worse then ever, they hardly spoke. Donna spent hardly any time in the house, only just to sleep there and even then only when she had to. More often then not she would book herself into a cheap hotel room, and just hide away the night there.

The nightmares still came where ever it was she slept, the darkness choking the life out of her. Waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, shouting the name of someone she didn't know what was. Knowing that he needed her, but not where he was or even who! She needed to get to him so badly, knowing how great his need was that several times she had dressed and left the house without knowing where to go. She'd wander a while and eventually disappointed go home again, to sit and drink coffee at the kitchen table trying so hard to remember what she couldn't find.

Like today at work, she should be typing but her mind kept wandering to the rain outside the window. Looking out to see if he was there, whoever he was. Someone in the back ground called "DOCTOR!" her head snapped around automatically. She saw her boss talking to a client, she sighed and tried to settle back into her work. A few minutes later the computer went crazy, spitting out the same two words over and over down the screen "Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf." A million times or more. The printer next to her started throwing out hundreds of pieces of paper with the same words on them. Donna screamed, and slammed back from her desk. IT where there in seconds to look over the problem. "It's a virus, you better go home for the day. You wont be able to do anything with it until I reformate your hard drive." He said.

Not having to be told twice, Donna picked up her bag and coat and left. She had been speechless, first time that had happened. She'd picked up a piece of paper with the words on and taken it with her she didn't know why. Just instinct again, she walked the few streets back home to her Granddad and walked up the hill to find him with his telescope even though it wouldn't be dark for hours yet.

"What are you doing home sweetheart?" he asked giving her a kiss.

"Something happened at work, some computer thingy they sent me home. These weird words on the screen." She answered sitting down next to him.

Granddad's breath caught, "What words?" he asked.

Donna passed him the page she had picked up and watched him read it. "Just crazy isn't it probably some 13 year old in Korea typing away on his laptop." She joked trying to rid herself of the chill that she felt inside.

He folded the paper up and gave it back to her, "I'm sure its nothing." He said but his face betrayed him.

"Gramps, what do you know about this?" Donna demanded.

He blushed, hearing his daughter in her. "Nothing dear."

"Gramps! I mean it, if you know something tell me!" She snapped grabbing his arm. Realising what she was doing, she let go fast. "I'm sorry. I dunno what's wrong with me lately. "

He didn't mind, he hoped that she was close to something, that she would one day get better. "Keep this safely, think about it every day Donna Noble. One day you will remember I promise you, and you will be better for it."

Donna looked at him oddly, "You know don't you?" she asked, "You know what it all means? The blue box, the man in the suit, the nightmares, this! Why won't you tell me?"

He took her hand gently, "Because you need to remember for yourself. You need to find out what that man in a suit means to you Donna. Only then will you be happy again!"

"I hate you." Donna snapped, and stormed away from him.

Tears touched the old mans face, as he watched her leave. He looked upwards, "Oh Doctor where are you? Why don't you come? Can't you see that Donna needs you?" he asked, "I need you, the whole world does! She was so much better with you, how can you leave her like this?"

A blonde girl appeared in front of the old man, she was dressed in modern enough clothing. Looked normal enough, until you looked at her eyes which shone like amber. "He can't answer you, I'm sorry." She said.

"Who are you?" he demanded, standing and edging away, "What do you want?"

"I am the Bad Wolf, I see all of time and space. I see the Doctor so very far away from here, and in so much danger. He needs the Donna Noble, the Doctor Donna or he will die." She said.

Wilf thought about what she had said, "But the Doctor he said she would die if she remembered? I keep on hoping she will get better. How can she help him when she doesn't even remember him? The Doctor is he going to be okay? He's not really going to die is he?"

The girl smiled sadly, "The Doctor is alone and abandoned, unwanted and unable to carry on. He's lost everything, and death is what he wishes." With a wave of her hand she created a bubble in space to allow the man to see inside the Tardis. To see his friend sat there crying, broken, lost.

Wilf wiped his eyes, "What can I do to help? I'd give my life for him or her." He vowed. "I'm an old man, I've had my time, but they have so much life left to live."

"Donna Noble must remember," The Wolf echoed, "And when she remembers she will die. Some things can be rewritten, we will make sure this is one of them. Wilfred Mott, you keep her trying to remember. When the time is right I will return and together we will mend the Doctor/Donna."

She vanished away, leaving the old man alone on the hill. With a new task and meaning in his life. Project free Donna Noble was on its way.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Silence of Shadows**

**Chapter 4**

For the next three days everywhere Donna looked those two words looked back at her. In the newspaper, on TV, at her computer desk, she got letters in the mail with pages of the words, flyers on the subway, even texts coming through on her phone. She felt like she was going insane, this couldn't be real! She phoned in sick to work and stayed in bed, not talking to anyone. Hoping that when she woke up everything would be back to normal again.

Her dreams where scattered, she kept seeing that skinny man in the suit. Seeing him running, hearing him shout her name. They were friends, weren't they? "Donna Noble, you are brilliant!" she heard him say hugging her. Another voice entered her dreams, "Donna Noble has left the library, Donna Noble has been saved!" Her own voice saying the words over and over again. "DONNA!" the man shouted again.

Donna Noble slammed upright in bed breathing hard, her screams had woken Wilf who was by her side in his plaid dressing gown. "Donna what's wrong love, tell me what to do."

She looked him square in the eyes, "The Doctor needs me!" she said.

"You remember him?" he asked grabbing her hands, hoping so much that everything was going to be okay.

"How could I ever forget him? Why did I?" she asked.

The Bad Wolf appeared in the doorway to her room, "Because he had to, because you were dying."

"Rose?" she asked.

The girl shook her head, "I was once, now I'm the Bad Wolf. I protect the Doctor, I always have and always will. I brought you two together and I will do so again."

Donna's head exploded in pain, she screamed. "What have you done?" she demanded, "I'm going to die and I wont even see him again!"

The Wolf stepped forward and grabbed Donna's head in her hands. "You will not die, you will be saved Donna Noble," she promised. "Close your eyes both of you!" Her hands glowed yellow and her eyes as well. The room exploded in a bright yellow light, lighting up the windows. People on the street outside looked up and pointed it was so bright. "Find a memory Donna Noble and hold onto it, the memory will guide you home." She whispered.

Wilf grabbed Donna's hand, trying to shield his eyes from the light. "Will this really work? "He asked.

"For both their sakes, we have to pray that it will." The Wolf answered.

Donna howled in pain, trying to block the voices out of her mind and find one image, one piece of her lost memory to carry her through. She found one, her wedding day, stuck under the Thames. The Doctor looking so angry, so frightening, pouring water down to murder the Spider Queen. Saving her life, she looked up to him. "Doctor you can stop now!" she shouted. She broke the spell on him, the spell that had been holding him there watching the creature dying.

He was lost and lonely and had no one to care about him. He had wanted to die there that day, wanted to drown underneath the town that she had come from. The planet that he loved so much, he had lost the girl he loved and nothing else had mattered to him. He had come this last time, just to die. She had stopped him, distracted him, and made him save her. Cause he wouldn't cause the death of another person just to end his pain.

Traveling with him later she had made him better, shown him he still had a task to preform. Then again traveling with him had made Donna herself so much better as well. Shown her how much more there was out there then her little temping pool and how petty her daily dilemmas were. It had been hell at times, but she had loved it all the same. She'd promised to travel with him forever and she was going to try to keep that promise. So Donna Noble held on to the image of that wonderful man, through all the pain and the torture her mind and body was going through. Because she knew that when it was over, that she would see him again.

The Wolf acted frantically trying to repair every synapse as it failed. The Doctor had done a good job of hiding Donna's mind from what would destroy it, now she had to reverse everything he had done. The mind was failing almost as fast as she was fixing it! It might have been hours or even days but eventually the Wolf tied the last piece in place and let Donna go. The girl slipped down into a fevered and restless sleep.

The Wolf sagged in exhaustion and had to be caught by the old man. "Are you okay? Is she?" he asked.

"She will sleep for up to a day, and then she will be fine. I would suggest that she rests, but I doubt anything could keep her in bed now." She answered laying a weary hand on his shoulder, "I will be fine, I am just tired near the end of my time now."

"Are you dying?" he asked in concern.

"In a way yes, but in another my shell Rose Tyler will be with her own Doctor forever and that's all that matters. The Wolf will die and I will become her again, and she will be happy. I allow myself to die so that she might live. Just like the Doctor took this power from me to save her life even though it once killed him." She said mysteriously. She looked at the golden power running across her hand, "Take care Wilfred Mott and take care of your family."

"I will do, I promise.!" He watched as she faded away, and took his place by Donna's side waiting for her to wake up.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Silence of Shadows**

**Chapter 5**

Rose Tyler Earth Defender: Parallel universe- 2010.

Bad Wolf Bay: Rose was faced with the Doctor, twice. She looked from one to the other, trying to find a difference, any difference. They couldn't both be him surely! The Doctor, and human. It couldn't be true! A man that could grow old with her, have a life with her, it was more then she had ever dreamed of!

But how could this new Doctor be her Doctor, she looked at the Time Lord with confusion. THIS was the man she loved, and had travelled with for so long, the man he had crossed the universe in search of. This more violent and aggressive other man, just wasn't him.

Rose turned to her Doctor and said "When we were on this beach before, you said something to me. What was the end of the sentence that started 'Rose Tyler'?"

The Doctor looked at her in almost pain that she would bring that up, he sighed. "Rose, does it really need answering?" he whispered.

Disappointed she turned to the newer Doctor, "And you, can you finish it?"

With a smile the human Doctor turned to her and whispered into her ear those words she had waited to hear for so long. She kissed him long and hard, as she did the TARDIS disappeared, she ran after it, but there was no time, the human Doctor took her hand and they watched it fade away...

Two years had passed since that fateful day. Rose had changed a lot since then, and Doctor John Smith had too. With money from her father's millions, they had rebuilt Torchwood, and started to rebuild everything that the daleks and cybermen had destroyed. John had thrown himself into his work, building the largest and smartest supercomputer anyone had ever seen. Filling it with all the information he had about every race he could think of.

Rose had done everything she could as well, helping to build new defence objects, training new people up to defend the world they lived in.

They had moved in together even got engaged, although a wedding and a normal life just seemed wrong for a man who had spent 1000 years wandering space. She watched the man she loved every day try to fit into a normal and human life, and he certainly tried to. But sometimes he would get distracted and she knew what he was thinking about and how hard it was for him to be here. Trapped in one place and one time only.

A few things drifted through the gateways now and then, the odd alien rubble or broken spaceship. Even a few aliens now and then, and that gleam would appear in his eyes again and for days he would be just like she remembered, then it would be over all too soon, and he would just fade back into nothing.

At first it had been a new life, he had experienced things like never before. Shopping, working a 9 til 5, cooking a meal! It hadn't lasted long though. It hurt Rose to see the man she loved so bored and so miserable in his life with her. She would do anything at all she decided, if it could give him back what he had lost! Nothing was ever going to make him happy in a normal average 9 to 5 life. Rose didn't know what to do for him anymore. Everyday she searched the databases at the base looking for something to interest him, anything just to bring him out of that gloom for a second. Crop circles, disappearances, alien sightings. Everything was still and quiet.

Too quiet...

A little like the calm before a storm...

Something was coming Rose could sense it in every fibre of her body, but what was it...


	6. Chapter 6

**The Silence of Shadows**

**Chapter 6**

John Smith got up early again that morning, he hadn't slept. He looked at Rose still asleep and sighed. He couldn't even bring himself to kiss her goodbye. He dressed silently and left the house. He loved Rose, and he would do anything for her. But this life here, the normal life, the doing the shopping, cooking and housework so fun at first had turned into boredom.

The first year had been amazing, discovering shops, and paint, and cooking and traveling on public transport. All the mundane things he had never done, arguing over what colour to paint the front room. Doing the gardening, he could see why Alistair had found it so relaxing. They went on holiday together, he'd loved it, traveling again. They had gotten married in the sun and the sand, and travelled the globe for months on end on a cruise. He had never wanted it to end, exploring the sites of the world like a mortal, cause now he was one.

But then they had come back, and boredom had set in again fast. He worked with Torchwood, but only now and then, there just wasn't enough work there for him. Not enough action, he longed for the stars he had spent over 900 years traveling through. He had grown distant from his wife, he knew that, and he knew that it hurt Rose that he couldn't tell her what was wrong. In her heart, he knew that she would understand, in a way. That even though he loved her and this place, his eyes would always roll back up towards the stars.

It wasn't the fact that he didn't love her, or didn't want to spend his life with her. But this life was so slow to everything he had ever done. He missed everything so badly it hurt him, and he wished he could turn that part of him off, and be the loving husband she deserved. She had waited so very very long to have him, and travelled so far, trying so hard to get back to him. What did she get? A shallow, empty, vessel of a man who could never be full again. He could never replace what he had lost, what he needed to carry on. His niece was a beautiful child, Jackie made a mum a second time around with the husband she had lost. They were so happy, so blissfully unaware of everything they were missing. He envied them, and what they had. Knowing the Rose deserved it, but not knowing where to find it in himself.

John Smith drove himself to work, and again he let himself into Torchwood before hardly anyone was there. Rose had worked hard to rebuild this place when she had been here alone. Her father Pete had given her the cash, her Mum Jackie worked with them as well. Sometimes he found it amazing that she went out in the field and worked as hard as she did and was still at home in time to cook them all dinner, and be the mother to a 6 year old!

There were dozens of people working here, scientists, doctors, nurses, experts in every field. She had worked at getting the bets and brightest of them all. Which reminded him Jackie had left him a post it to remind him that there was a new medical officer joining today that he would need to meet. John grimaced, he hated doing stuff like that and wished nothing more then to hide away in his lab and be left in peace.

Talking of which he had got to the door of his lab, without even noticing. He unlocked it, and let himself in. "Hello sexy." he whispered looking at the semi grown Tardis in the lab. John had been working hard with the limited human technogy to complete Donna's instructions to grow his own baby, so he could go back to the stars. He had never told Rose what he did in that lab and she had never asked. He knew it was a betrayal of sorts of their love. He knew she would be angry he had kept it from her, but he didn't want to get both their hopes up for nothing if it didn't work out.

The Tardis console was in the middle of the room, half grown walls all about it. He stroked her lovingly, "Did you miss me?" he asked softly. The telepathic link had been set up already, and he had been trying to teach her what she needed to know to complete herself, it was long, hard work, but he spent every free hour he had here with the Tardis building her better. This was the first Tardis to be grown since the fall of Gallifrey, the start of a new breed. She had to be important, she had to be perfect in every way.

Something brushed at the edge of his mind, "Rose?" he whispered. Pulling the mobile phone Torchwood had issued him out his pocket, he dialled her twice, no answer. He wasn't sure if she was still sleeping, or not. Putting it back in his pocket, he vowed to himself to try again soon, and make sure she was ok. Even he in his distracted state had noticed she had been very tired of late, he hoped she wasn't getting sick. He hadn't asked her, any more then she asked him any questions. They lived in the same house, shared the same bed, but he couldn't remember the last time they had talked, the last time he had heard her laugh, the last time they had done anything together. He had to try harder with Rose, before he lost her again. He'd never stand the pain of loosing her again, not in this damageable human form. It couldn't harness the rage and pain of a Time Lord. He went back to work, trying to keep his mind off of painful thoughts.


End file.
